Table of Contents
Water Feature Ideas
Adding a water feature, even if it is a small one, brings more than interest to your overall backyard ambiance. It also draws helpful insects and songbirds to your gardens, useful for pollination and enjoyment. If you have a water feature already prominent in your landscape, even better! Tie it into your yard to make it flow seamlessly as part of the overall effect.
Walking on Water
Water features are made even more magnificent with unusual additions such as these stepping stones designed to provide the illusion of walking on water. Get inspired with unique garden pond ideas and make your pond the talk of the neighborhood with this unexpected pathway.
Need a Drink
Don’t discredit a water feature simply because you have a small space. Recycle all those wine bottles into a wall with a fun disappearing waterfall. It also will draw in birds and pollinators to provide even more color and interest.
Fish Pond
Having your fish is an experience that brings year-round enjoyment and visual stimulation. The larger your pond, the larger the type of fish you can grow! Take advantage of these features for additional planting experiences as well! If you don’t want to spend too much money, learn how to build a backyard fish pond on your own!
Ancient Attribute
Carefully carved walls, dwellings, and fountains are found in abundance through the ancient cities of old. Revive these architectural touches in your landscape and enjoy a touch of classic garden enjoyment.
Ponds for the Patio
Patio ponds are awesome and include fountains, boxes, stones, or another structure that can hold water. These provide interest and draw in the birds and pollinators that are so cherished. Plus, the sound is soothing!
Picturesque Canals
Brighten up the travels of the canal with picturesque garden walls, greenery, and alluring pops of color. If you have a neglected property boundary, make it your next project to spruce up for the enjoyment of all who pass by.
Canal Cottage
When your lawn brushes up against a waterfront, you most likely want to leave a bit of open space to enjoy the view – but that doesn’t mean you can’t have beautiful towering gardens. This home takes advantage of the side yard and the use of a narrow garden bed to provide a larger-than-life look for those cruising along the canal.
Garden Pathway Ideas
Allow your guests to enjoy your gardens with unique pathways that showcase your landscape design and vegetative plantings. Whether you create your DIY walk or take advantage of natural features to help influence your meanderings, it is sure to provide even further interest.
Rest Your Feet
It’s been mentioned to include a place to rest. Concrete benches are awesome to both sit on or provide a place to raise planters to provide added height to container gardens.
Behind Doors
One man’s castoff is another’s treasure. Old building supplies are popular additions to use in a landscape to provide an unexpected feature and can be used to create your visionary masterpiece.
Brickwork
The warm tones of brickwork and the simple, inconsistent lines are perfect backdrops for gardens and simple pathways for garden enjoyment. Take advantage of any brick you have, or add your own to make your greens look greener and your blooms look framed in natural hues.
Unique Pavers
When we think of concrete pavers, the traditional square shapes come to mind. But what if you could design your own in any shape you want? These circular options are swirled and lined to create cool visual effects.
Winding Walkways
A well-placed garden path, bordered by greenery, is another way to make your yard look larger than what it is and provide great interest. It will leave your guests wondering where the path leads to next and help showcase your blooms.
Arched Walkway
Many people feel that an arbor is for larger spaces as so not to dwarf what little room you have. But an arbor can be a focal point for a smaller space. For example, it frames a narrow walkway and is a great way to showcase what lies beyond.
Create Depth
Place taller greenery along your fences, with clusters of smaller plants and grasses to the front, and create an illusion of depth. Nobody will know that your property ends rather than continues into other unexplored garden lands.
Watering Hole
If nothing else, a great place to sit and enjoy the company of your friends and family should be included in your yard. Potted plants or even more permanent choices can be placed where you find you can enjoy them the most and provide privacy.
Textured Contrast
A manicured lawn and pebbled bed are only separated by the pathway- reminiscent of a meandering stream. Your use of textures and colors can provide an effect that not only makes the yard look larger but also creates a sense of wonderment and imagination.
All in the Details
Small spaces benefit from a pop of color here and there that is from more than just the plants you have included in your landscaping. Stepping stones, small sculptures, and other interesting features can be added sparingly, depending on your interests.
Hidden Walkways
Create hidden walkways that appear from amongst your plants that look as if they might disappear at any moment. Mix and match your perennials and annuals to provide dramatic differences between texture and colors.
Pathways
Enjoy your garden by walking within it. This main walkway is a beautiful plank design, but small pathways jut off to provide a closer look and immersion within your planting choices.
Creating a Vision
This colorful pathway incorporates an incredibly unique vision that uses planters as faux trees to line the border of the walk. Vibrant spills of annual color bring a new life to the area for all who wander along to enjoy.
Welcome to the Jungle
Bring a taste of the wild to your landscape with draping vines and sprawling ground covers that provide shadowy shapes and pops of delicate color. This pathway is lined with a wide variety of textures to showcase the variances of greenery in both deciduous and evergreen forms for year-round interest.
Miniature Labyrinth
Create your own miniature labyrinth with well-manicured and carefully trimmed vegetation. Boxwood, in particular, is an excellent evergreen option that allows for all-season enjoyment. These also serve as excellent choices for small garden bed borders.
Peaceful Paths
Many people think a pathway needs to lead somewhere specific, but don’t be afraid to let it trickle out for your wanderers to contemplate their destination. This lovely flagstone walkway ends at the edge of a garden for your enjoyment.
Decking and Patio Decor
What better way to unwind after a long day than on your deck overseeing all your hard work or cool patio with a refreshing drink and friendly conversation? Decks and patios can be easily added to landscaping or used as part of the overall ambiance. Take advantage of these ideas to create your backyard getaway.
Organized Relaxation
This carefully planned and organized backyard combines both rustic gardens and modern pavements and geometric design for a place to escape and relax within. Don’t hesitate to use opposing styles for added interest.
Outdoor Furniture Options
If you do not have a lot of color variation in your yard, but feel it needs a splash of brightness, consider what outdoor furniture you choose, as it can be the option you need when you don’t have time for additional plantings.
Fun for the Kids
If you have kids, utilize even small spaces with something they will enjoy. A built-in tic-tac-toe board, made from slate and painted rocks, is a great way to keep them busy. Plus, it’s adorable!
Shady Gazebos
Gazebos are another feature many people with small yards avoid, but they make an awesome way to protect from the elements and can be surrounded by your gardens for year-round enjoyment.
Social Gathering
Always include a place to relax and socialize in your landscaping plans. It is not only a great way to enjoy all your hard work and varying seasonal garden changes but also a way to always have a place to entertain.
Keeping Warm
Outdoor fireplaces have become a popular addition to backyard landscapes to become a place to gather and socialize. These structures are easily used all year round and can also work with temporary gazebos and other structures if needed.
Looking Up
Think outside the box when it comes to utilizing your space. Create a place to sit, protected from the sun, all while allowing your plants to grow and bloom. This innovative approach provides multiple solutions to potted gardens and a place to enjoy them.
Fire Pit Perfection
You may be mourning the space you want for a fire pit, but this truly isn’t something to cry about. Many portable fire pits exist in sizes to fit your needs. All you need is wood and friends (and maybe a marshmallow or two) to gather and enjoy.
Quiet Corner
Make a quiet corner into a quiet escape with some simple garden furniture. Use the features of your yard and add whatever decorative options you may have to make your space personal and relaxing.
Natural Patios
Patios don’t need to be made from generic concrete slabs. Rather, take advantage of more natural rock formations that can be settled in your yard to resemble a surface that looks as if it was dug from the surrounding landscape.
Overlooking Views
Take advantage of any overlooking views you may have, whether it includes sweeping vistas or open plains. Decking and patios are very easy to build into hillsides and create dramatic effects for year-round enjoyment.
Using Vertical Space
Decking is the perfect place to showcase your planters and bring to life areas that are not usually covered in vegetation. Climbing vines are also the perfect way to create a backdrop along tall walls and green up otherwise barren areas. Just be sure to trim and keep under control your vines, so they don’t get too crazy.
Decking Details
Don’t leave your decks open and empty. Instead, add variously sized planters and use a mix of textures and colors to bring to life an otherwise boring area. Container gardening is an excellent way to bring vegetation into spaces that may otherwise seem barren.
Mediterranean Inspired
Even if you don’t live in a climate supportive of more delicate perennials, you can opt to grow them as annual plants- or even grow them in pots that can easily be brought indoors once the weather begins to cool.
Stone Stairways
Although the use of stone is popular in country gardens, they can begin to look a bit monotonous without added texture and color. Well-placed pots and the use of various greeneries and seasonal blooms can add a lot of interest quite quickly.
Shady Patios
The incorporation of a shady patio allows you to enjoy your backyard through all seasonal changes, protecting you from rain and snow, as well as direct sunlight. Green up these areas with the addition of small flower beds and fragrant potted plants such as lavender and rosemary to keep biting insects away.
Dining Area
Convert your patio into a fancy dining area. With this project, the sky is the limit. The center of this idea is a table and chairs, but do not limit only to those. Use other kitchen furniture, such as cupboards, sink, fridge, and more. Add some nice lights to set up the mood and enjoy yourself!
Conclusion
This amazingly large array of backyard ideas should most definitely have you thinking about how to apply gardening techniques, colors, furniture, and other features to your landscape. No matter what size yard you have, you can create your vision for backyard enjoyment.
Let us know what ideas were your favorite and show us how it looks in your own backyard! As always, please share!
